Cash-strapped Isis is trafficking children and organs for money

The terror group is losing its hold on Iraq and Syria, and along with it the oil fields, which financed its activities.

Cash-strapped Isis is trafficking children and organs for money. In picture: Iraqi security forces hold an Islamist State flag which they pulled down at the University of Anbar, in Anbar province 26 July, 2015.Reuters

The Islamic State group, which is increasingly losing its hold on Iraq and Syria, is strapped for cash as oil fields — whose products it used to sell for money to fiance its terror activities — slip through its hands. Now, to supplement the cash flow, the terror group is believed to be trafficking children and human organs in parts of Iraq.

An Iraqi News report quoted a local source as saying that the Islamic State group — also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) — was dealing with Turkish organ traders. The source said Isis had traded 23 organs — harvested from the injured and dead — with these people in the Nineveh province of Iraq.

"Special medical unit of the organisation [Isis] proceeded to steal human organs for about 23 Isis militants of those who slept in the hospitals of Nineveh," said the source, adding: "What has been stolen from those members included the kidneys, intestines and more; they were transferred under tight control to affiliated hospital on the outskirts of the city."

The source also said: "This came after the loss of the majority of sources of financial funding [for Isis], particularly with regard to crude oil," which makes up "about 80 percent" of the earnings of the group.

Another source later informed the same news outlet that Isis had taken to trafficking children with the help of the same Turkish individuals. The source said: "Isis has kidnapped dozens of children and sold them to the Turkish organ traffickers to finance their budget in Mosul," adding, "More than 30 children aged 9-12 years have been detained by Isis and are being readied to be trafficked to Turkey."